Process of producing metallic carbids



(No Model.)

A. H. COWLES. y PROCESS 0F PRODUGING METALLIC GARBIDS. No.- 590,514.Patented Sept. 21,1897.

WnTNE 5er-:5. INvENTmH Ni'rnn STATES PATENT rricn.

ALFRED II. COIVLES, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN-MENTS, TO THE ELECTRO GAS COMPANY, OF TEST VIRGINIA.

PROCESS OF PRODUCING METALLIC CARBIDS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 590,514, datedSeptember 21, 1897. Application filed August I9, 1895. Serial No.559,726. (No specimens.)

To aZZ whom it may concern: ture. A volatilization of some of the metalBe it known that I, ALFRED II. COWLES, of calcium and a reoxidization ofit, it passing Cleveland, county of Cuyahoga, State of Ohio, off asfumes to a degree variable with the type have invented a new andusefulImprovement of the furnace and the amount of energy de- 55 5 inProcesses of Producing Metallic Carbids, livered thereto,tends also tolessen the amount of which the following is a full, true, and exofcarbon needed in the mixture, as the calact description, reference beinghad to the accium vapor that escapes does not unite with companyingdrawing. any carbon. Superficial combustion of a lit- This inventionrelates to an improved proctle of the carbon on the surface calls for a6o 1o ess for forming metallic carbids by the union slight increase ofcarbon in the mixture as a of carbon and a metal, the said union beingwhole, and allowance must be made when accomplished by the simultaneousreduction doing close work for moisture present in the of an oxid of themetal and the union of the lime and coke. I then subject the mixturereduced metal with finely-comminuted carto the action of the electriccurrent in a fur- 65 15 bon, which thus serves the double purpose ofnace*such, for example, as that shown in the primarily in part combiningwith the oxygen accompanying drawing, which is a vertical of the oxidand subsequently with the relongitudinal section, and in whichducedmetal. This process is carried out by A is an elongated furnace-chamber.

causing the lateral withdrawal of electrodes, B B are carbon electrodesentering through 7o 2o preferably of carbon projecting into and the endwalls of the trough-like chamber and buried in a mass of the commingledmetallic inclined downward and adapted to meet at oxid and carbon, andthen withdrawing them the center of the chamber. These electrodeslaterally beneath the mass as the material is can be drawn out or pushedin, as required,

acted upon between them. By this process and they are respectivelyconnected to the 75 e 5 the two electrodes are protected from theoxicables b b of the electric circuit. For effectdizing effect of theatmosphere by the conive work the current employed should have tact ofmaterial containing carbon therewith, from forty to seventy Volts and anamperage while at the same time the said material depending upon thesize of the furnace and serves as a heat-insulator, retaining the heatamount of material to be produced. The 8o 3o in the cavity between them,and the material mixture of lime and coke in the furnace is above fallsinto the interspace and is there indicated at C.

gradually converted into carbid by the arc The ends of the electrodes atthe start are flowing between such poles. As an example brought closetogether and an arc forms beof the production of such metallic carbids Itween them, smelting the mixture in its vicin 8 5 3 5 describe theproduction of calcium carbid. ity and forming the calcium carbid. There- In carrying out my process I proceed as folduction of the materialaround and below the lows: I take finely-divided coke and lime inends ofthe electrodes produces a sump within timately commingled and I minglethem thorthe charge and a pool of the molten calcium oughly in atomicproportions, which should carbid forms therein. As the reduction pro- 9o4o be, making due allowance for the reduction gresses the electrodes areretracted, and an of the CaO to Ca and then the formation "of arc thenforms between each electrode and the calcium carbid, (CaC2,) CO passingoff the bath of calcium carbid beneath. At this as gas, 60.9 per cent.of lime and 39.1 per stage of the operation of the furnace, which cent.of coke. Some deviation from the spebecomes the working condition of theelec- 95 45 cic atomic proportions has to be made to setrodes, there aretwo centers of electrical cure the best results to allow for certainfacenergy at a shortk distance from each other, tors, which tend tomodify it under the conthe current flowing in opposite directionsditions attending actual practice. For extherethrough from one electrodedownward ample, a slight supply of carbon from the to the molten carbidand from the molten 10o 5o carbon electrodes tends to lessen the amountpool upward to the other electrode. Addiof carbon that needs to bcpresent in the mixtional material is from time to time shoveled in ontoit and `feeds downward between and around the ends of the electrodes. Aportion of the pool of calcium carbid may be from time to time tappedout by pushing a bar through a side hole in the furnace -wall obliquely,up through the outlying portion of the charge7 into the sump formedbelow the electrodes. The point for tapping oft is indicated in dottedlines at a.

The hole forms a sufficiently open channel for Athe ilow of the moltencarbid, and it is closed with a plug in the usual way when enough hasbeen tapped oil". The liquid calcium carbid produced, when allowed tocool7 erystallizes into the forni above described, and when brokenexhibits iridescent surfaces. lVhat I claim as my invention, and desireto secure by Letters Patent, isM

The herein-described process of making calcium carbid, which consists incausing a current to pass between electrodes laterally projecting into amass of intimately-co1n mingled calcium oxid and carbon ol such extentthat a material proportion thereof will remain undecoinposed by thepassage el the current, and in gradually separating the electrodes asthe material between them is reduced so as to produce between the electrodes a body oi the carbid surrounded by an undecomposed mass of themixture, sub stantially as described.

ln testimony whereof l have signed my name to this specification in thepresence olf two subseribin g witnesses.

ALFRED ll. (JOXVLES. lVitnesses:

STORY 1E. LADD, JOHN E. Il'niNsY.

